If you have dogs long enough and you have carpet, it will probably happen to you: dog urine on the carpet. Maybe your puppy isn't fully house-trained yet. It could be that your older dog has developed urinary incontinence. Your perfectly well-mannered, trained dog might get a urinary tract infection that causes her to be unable to stop herself from having accidents. Your geriatric dog may have joint pain that makes it difficult to adopt the proper stance for urinating outdoors, and she may hold it until it spills out. Whatever the reason for the accident, it leaves you with a problem: how to get dog urine out of carpet.

How to Find Dog Urine in Carpet

It may be obvious where the urine spot on your carpet is, but sometimes you can smell it and not see it. You have to find it before you can clean it, but how do you do that?

There's the hands-and-knees, nose-to-the-ground method. If you or someone you know has a sensitive sniffer, you can track down the soiled spot(s) this way.

You can find urine stains, including old ones, by using a black light in a dark room. Be sure to check in corners, around baseboards, and under furniture.

How to Clean a New Dog Urine Spot

If you have found a spot of dog urine that is still wet, you can clean it using the following steps:

Soak up as much of the urine as possible with paper towels or a white bath towel. Place the towels on the spot and stand on them, shifting your weight around slowly. Repeat this process with fresh towels until no further urine comes up into them.

Once as much urine as possible has been removed from the soiled area of carpet, rinse the spot with clean water.

Repeat the blotting process to remove the water from the carpeting.

A wet vac, like this great one, can suck the extra water out of the carpet and help tremendously at this stage, as well.

How to Clean an Old Dog Urine Spot

If you have an old urine spot that you have already tried to clean with chemicals or cleaners, you must first remove all of the previous cleaners before the stain can be treated.

Using a wet vac or an extractor with clean, plain water is the best way to remove any cleaners and remaining urine from the carpet. These machines can easily be rented. Follow the instructions for the machine.

Once the area is clean, use an enzymatic pet odor neutralizer. These products bind to and neutralize the proteins in the dog urine that result in odor. Try it on a hidden area first to make sure that it doesn't discolor your carpet, and follow the instructions carefully. Some excellent products are Nature's Miracle, Zero Odor Pet Stain Remover, and Urine Off Odor and Stain Remover.

Once you have completed the steps above, if the odor is gone but your carpet still looks stained, use a good-quality carpet stain remover on the area. Spot Shot is an exceptionally good stain remover.

General Tips for Cleaning Dog Urine out of Carpet

Do not use steam cleaners. The heat from these machines can permanently set the stain and odor into your carpet.

Do not use strong-smelling cleaners such as vinegar and ammonia. These products may encourage your pet to urinate in the same spot again in order to cover them up.

Cleaning agents that are present in the carpet can cause the enzymatic pet odor neutralizing products to be unable to work properly. Using water and an extractor to thoroughly rid the area of any products that you may have used before will help the neutralizing product work better.

If urine has soaked into the carpet padding, you may need to remove that in order to thoroughly get rid of the urine odor. In severe cases, where the spot has been urinated on routinely, the flooring beneath the carpet and pad may need to be cleaned and covered with a sealant in order to completely remove the odor.

Find out and treat the cause of the inappropriate urination in your dog to avoid recurrence of the problem. If your pet is not house-trained yet, consider the crate-training method. If your dog is older and the inappropriate urination is a new issue, be sure to take her to the veterinarian to rule out a medical problem like urinary incontinence, urinary tract infection, bladder stones, or diabetes.

Disclaimer: This website is not intended to replace professional consultation, diagnosis, or treatment by a licensed veterinarian. If you require any veterinary related advice, contact your veterinarian promptly. Information at DogHealth.com is exclusively of a general reference nature. Do not disregard veterinary advice or delay treatment as a result of accessing information at this site.